Shifting Focus from the Past to the Future

Overcoming Strategic Pitfalls

In more than 20 years of developing and implementing strategic plans, we've learned a crucial lesson: strategies often falter due to an excessive focus on past challenges. Without a proactive approach, organizations may struggle to adapt to shifting market conditions, which can hinder progress and prevent them from reaching their strategic goals.

Key Reason for Failure: ISOY

Too much attention is given to what we call ISOY - "Issues of Yesterday." Managers, directors, and entrepreneurs often spend an inordinate amount of time on past and current concerns, hindering progress toward future goals.

On the horizontal axis, the past lies to the left, while the future is on the right. The vertical axis, segmented into orange, green, and red blocks, reflects how resources are allocated and the corresponding value created.

Unfortunately, many leaders invest significant resources in the "Issues of Yesterday," thus limiting their focus on "Today" and "Tomorrow." To achieve strategic objectives effectively, it's crucial to reallocate time and attention. We suggest a strategic time split: dedicate 70% to "Today," 20% to "Tomorrow," and 10% to "The Day After Tomorrow."

Building a Culture of Curiosity

Shifting priorities requires cultivating the right mindset in your organization—a culture that fosters curiosity and proactive thinking. This mindset, which we term "an attitude of serendipity," ensures your team explores new trends and remains agile in responding to emerging opportunities. Here's how to build this culture:

1. Trend Tracking: Encourage your team to actively follow global trends and remain alert to shifts in the market landscape.
2. Observational Skills: Promote keen observation. Sometimes, innovations can be inspired by unrelated environments like nature.
3. Network Expansion: Leverage internal and external networks to expose your team to diverse ideas. Marketers should attend IT conferences, for instance, to stimulate creative thinking.
4. Calculated Risk-Taking: Encourage risk-taking by supporting experimentation and learning from failures.

By adopting this approach, you can shift your organization's focus from "Issues of Yesterday" to envisioning and building for the day after tomorrow. Cultivating curiosity, alertness, and trend awareness will enable your team to anticipate challenges and seize opportunities, ultimately realizing your strategic vision.

Let us embrace this mindset together to unlock the future potential of our strategic planning efforts!

Authors:

Ides Ticket, Christophe Sintubin, Bob De Rydt, Frithjof Struye & Roderich K?rner-Rehn

www.businessmarkers.com